0
products in your shopping cart
Total:   $0.00 details
There are no products in your shopping cart!
We hope it's not for long.

Visit the shop

Curiosities

list view
  • Tek Sing Shipwreck Treasure – Dish decorated in Lotus, Lingzhi and Peach – 1822

    Tek Sing Shipwreck Treasure – Dish decorated in Lotus, Lingzhi and Peach – 1822

    Qing Dynasty decorated dish recovered by Mike Hatcher from the Tek Sing shipwreck of 1822. Nice condition.

    Beautifully decorated with bands of lotus flower around a central spiral and set in alternate designs of lingzhi fungus and fruiting peach. Similar decorations to external rim, potters mark at bottom. Bright and clean. 15cm in diameter 6cm high, weighs 220gm. Retains Nagel auction sticker.

    Price $240.00

    Bright well decorated treasure from the Tek Sing
    ________________________

    The Tek Sing Shipwreck – Background

    The Tek Sing (Chinese for “Bright Star”’) was a large Chinese Junk which sank in 1822 in the South China Sea at the Belvidere Shoals. She was 50 meters long, 10 metres wide and weighed a thousand tons. Manned by a crew of 200. The great loss of life has led to the Tek Sing being referred to as the “Titanic of the East”.

    Sailing from the port of Amoy (now Xiamen), the Tek Sing was bound for Jakarta, with a cargo of porcelain goods and 1,600 Chinese immigrants. After a month of sailing, Captain Lo Tauko took a shortcut through the Gaspar Straits and ran aground on a reef and sank in 100 feet of water.

    The next morning and English East Indiaman captained by James Pearl sailing from Indonesia to Borneo passed through the Gaspar Straits. He found debris from the sunken Chinese vessel and survivors. They managed to rescue 190 people.

    In 1999, marine salvor Mike Hatcher discovered the wreck. His crew raised what has been described as the largest cache of Chinese porcelain ever recovered. It was auctioned by Nagle in Stuttgart, Germany the following year

    $240.00

    Loading Updating cart…
  • Daphnis et Chloe By Longus with aquarelles by G. P. Jornard – Surely the world’s prettiest book

    Daphnis et Chloe By Longus with aquarelles by G. P. Jornard – Surely the world’s prettiest book

    Published on the Champs-Elysees, Paris in the 1920’s by Editions Nilsson.

    This superb book contains six mounted watercolours (aquarelles) that match the quality of the watercolour adorning this beautiful onion skin paper front cover.

    Small quarto, 154 pages. This book often found as effectively a soft cover – this copy hard bound, pretty basic half red cloth over brown papered boards, top edge gilt. Whilst we say basic it’s done a good job in protecting the aquarelles … the odd bit of spotting in the text. Overall, a very worthwhile copy.

    A Greek pastoral novel written by Longus during the second century AD. Based on the island of Lesbos a young couple having been brought up adopted by a goat herder and a shepherd respectively having been abandoned at birth eventually find love. It was a difficult road but it ends well.

    The artist was Germaine Paule Jounard, she was a highly respected artist of the period and completed many illustrations particularly for the frencg fashion industry at the time.

    What better romantic gift than this

    French 1920’s with beauty and style

    $190.00

    Loading Updating cart…
  • The Thinker Bookends by Armor Bronze New York – 1920’s

    The Thinker Bookends by Armor Bronze New York – 1920’s

    A solid and delightful pair of bookends by Armor Bronze who had a showroom on Fourth and then Fifth Avenue, New York during the 1920’s.

    The company’s origins are not clear with some sources saying 1890’s – for sure they existed in 1910 as the National Metalizing Company changing their name to Armor Bronze circa 1920.

    Collectors and Bibliophiles bookends based on “Le Penseur” by Rodin. Some age as expected, still in good to better condition. Stand 20cm high and weighing in at a hefty, book securing 3.0 kg the pair.

    Heavy items may require a postage supplement if Overseas …

    Period Thinker Bookends – Don’t think too long

    $360.00

    Loading Updating cart…
  • French Miniature Furnace Microscope – c1850-60

    French Miniature Furnace Microscope – c1850-60

    Scarce miniature Mineral or Furnace Microscope attributed to Bertrand, Paris in the Billings Collection pages 37 and 193. The Billings example no 369 on page 193 is identical even down to the circle made on the outer case from running the closing catch around.

    Beautifully made, the original mahogany box has a conical dove tail slide cut into its top into which the instrument sits. The brass base screws to the tune stand. There is a square cut in the front that houses a single mirror on a milled head pivot. The stand is cut away for the fixed circular stage. At the top of the stand there is a screw in cylinder into which the body tube slides. There is an outer casing which slides downward to become a slide holder. The objective and ocular screw in.

    This is a collector’s item – it is probably one of the smallest practical microscopes ever made, is extremely well made and in as perfect a condition one could expect for its age. The case is undamaged with a great patina.

    Case dimensions approximately 85mm x 45mm x 35mm. Microscope height 75mm base diameter 25mm.

    Perfect collectable miniature microscope – over 150 years old.
    .

    $260.00

    Loading Updating cart…
  • Mining Medal – Centenary of The Deep Navigation Coal Mine – 1979.

    Mining Medal – Centenary of The Deep Navigation Coal Mine – 1979.

    The Deep Navigation Colliery was a major underground mine at Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales. It was the deepest of all South Wales cola mines. It produced high quality “steam coal” which powered the Mauretania and the Lusitania in successful Blue Riband attempts for the fastest Atlantic crossing.

    Opened in 1879 after much effort sinking shafts, many lives were lost. Throughout its life it suffered from huge amounts of water ingress and massive pumps were used constantly to keep it manageable. The quality of the coal ensured its profitability until the early 1990’s when the geology became more challenging and it was closed and the area reclaimed as public sports fields.

    This medal was given to each miner in the workforce in 1979 at the 100-year anniversary of the mine opening – so about 500-600 were likely struck. A fine example, gilt finished, haunched miner figures to both sides – one an early 19thC miner with mandrel and Davey lamp, the other a modern miner with safety helmet vs cloth cap. 40 mm diameter fine condition, high relief 25 gm.

    Scarce Coal Mining Commemorative

    $60.00

    Loading Updating cart…
  • Original PhD Thesis – The Force-Field Approach to Neutron Monitor Observations of the Eleven-Year Cosmic-Ray Modulation Cycle – H. Morall

    Original PhD Thesis – The Force-Field Approach to Neutron Monitor Observations of the Eleven-Year Cosmic-Ray Modulation Cycle – H. Morall

    Harm Moraal [1947-2015] born in the Netherlands but spent most of his life in his adopted home South Africa where he was Professor of Physics at Potchefstroom University. He became an accepted world authority in Cosmic Rays and a member of the Commission on Cosmic Rays of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics – now the Commission on Astro-particle Physics – in the 1990’s he was Chair of the Commission. He was involved in numerous other related bodies.

    Harm Moraal completed this PhD in December 1973. The work comprises 130 pages reproduced from typescript bound in faux black Morocco, gilt titles to front hand done consistent with the techniques of the period.

    This is high level science and of history of science merit. Chapter subjects include :–

    Cosmic-Ray Modulation Theory [Development of Equations; Mono-Energetic Solutions; Force-Filed Solutions etc]

    The Force-Field Equation Applied to Neutron Monitor Response Functions [Force-Field Equations for a Mixture of Particle; Neutron Monitor Distribution Functions (the Experiments); Validity of the modified convection diffusion approximation etc]

    The Force-Field Equation Applied to Measurements of Stationary Neutron Monitors [Fractions Counting Rates etc]

    The Modulation of Cosmic-Ray Electrons [Comparison with neutron monitor results and separability of the diffusion coefficient etc]

    Various Appendices including – the Rigidity Dependence of the Diffusion Coefficient near the Cosmic-Ray Maximum of May 1965.

    Important PhD Thesis by a man who then devoted his life to his subject Cosmic-ray Physicist Harm Moraal .

    $140.00

    Loading Updating cart…
LoadingUpdating…

Product Categories